


Combaticons: Earth Base 1

by Digimaniac



Category: Bumblebee (Movie 2018) - Fandom, Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: 1992, Amputee, Combaticons - Freeform, Cybertron, Post-Bumblebee (Movie 2018), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Starscream being Starscream, fictional war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2020-10-04 03:23:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 9,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20464208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Digimaniac/pseuds/Digimaniac
Summary: Five earth years after Bumblebee, Starscream deploys the Combaticons to Earth to establish a base for Starscream’s traitorous faction of Decipitcons. The mission isn’t as easy as it should be when they attract the attention of Agent Jack Burns and his specialized kill team. A small isolated town in northern North Dakota becomes a battle ground for an alien war, and despite the small scope of the conflict, these battles could turn the tide of the war.





	1. Prelude

Cybertron, an ancient world, ravaged by thousands of years of civil war. The lines of alliance have been blurred, both sides’ hands are filthy with sin. In the waning days of the war Megatron left Cybertron for an unknown purpose, with him he took his elite guard. Our planet is lost and in a desperate attempt to survive and regroup in order to win the war, most Autobots left the planet in escape pods, scattered to the stars. A brave scout went to a small planet called Earth and deemed it suitable for an Autobot base. However we were foolish to believe that no others had seen the same potential...


	2. The Mission

“Well, well, well, this is an interesting situation” The nasally, gravelly voice of Starscream echoed throughout the damp cell.

Onslaught looked up through the energy bars at the source of the voice, a scrawny white, blue, and red body stood casting a shadow on the Combaticon. He had large wings emerging from his back, and rocket thrusters on his calves. 

“It seems I hold the only key to your release” Starscream dramatically twirls the cell key around his long, thin, razor sharp finger “Your treacherous deeds have landed you in this miserable hole, if only there was some way-“

Onslaught cuts him off “You, of all bots, calling us treacherous? That’s rich”. A chuckle ran through his mostly dark blue with muted green body. At the same time Brawl, a bulky green Decepticon, let out an exaggerated laugh the boomed throughout the room. 

“Do you mind?” Starscream said, clearly exasperated “I was in the middle of something” He started twirling the key again, “If only some way you could escape” Starscream looked at the key, feigning surprise, “That does remind me of something…” He left off the sentence dramatically.

“Cut the scrap, Starscream” Swindle spoke up, stepping forward, the limited lighting revealing his yellow and purple chassis. “Are you offering us a business opportunity?” He greedily rubbed his hands together.

Starscream sighed, leaning against the dirty wall “Fine, since you want to get straight to the deal” He looked back at the wall, seeing how dirty it was, quickly stood up. “About four and half meta-cycles ago a pair of Decepticon scouts, Dropkick and Shatter, tried to send a transmission from a backwater planet called Earth, the message was incomplete but the part that was decipherable was the word ‘Autobot’” He held out his hand, projecting a holographic image of a galaxy, with a single line through it. “This will be your flight path, your job is to go there and establish a base for me, and my followers, before Megatron even hears about the planet. Any questions?”

“One major one, why would we work for you?” This time it was Blast Off who spoke up, his bronze body glistened in the light from the hologram. “Even if you usurp Megatron, it would be easier to defect to you after his death, along with the rest of the Decepticons.”

Starscream clenched his fist and the hologram disappeared, “Because under Megatron’s rule you will be executed for insubordination, under mine you will be hailed as heroes.” 

Onslaught looked back towards his team, his red eyes narrow as he thinks it through, after making eye contact with all four of them he turns to Starscream, “We’re in”


	3. Escape

“Two guards, heavily armed, one with a Scrap Maker, the other with a Rocket Launcher,” Blast Off whispered while looking through the scope of his sniper rifle. “I have a clean shot on the rocket trooper, but the other one is better armored” 

As soon as Onslaught agreed Starscream opened the cell and left, claiming that he couldn’t be seen with them. The prison itself showed how much the front line was being prioritized, inside they only encountered one guard, and now, at the exit, there were two more. They weren’t even especially skilled fighters, the basic vehicons were no match for the Combaticons. Despite this, they were still being cautious, you never know when more powerful, skilled, warriors could be nearby. 

“Your sniper makes too much noise anyway, especially now that we’re out in the open now,” Vortex responded quietly drawing a sword.

“Bah, who cares! There’s a launch pad nearby, even if we’re spotted we can make it before anyone can stop us” Brawl said loudly.

“Both of you have good points,” Onslaught cut in before the arguing could continue, “if we’re spotted we can blow our way out, however at the moment a form of stealth is our best option. Blast Off, take out the rocket trooper,” Blast Off nodded in recognition looking back into his scope and adjusting his aim, “Vortex, handle the other one”

Vortex lunged forward out of the cover of the doorway, straight at the Vehicon with the machine gun, his sword ready. Following Vortex’s lead, Blast Off fired off a shot at the rocket trooper, but Vortex’s charge got her attention and she shifted slightly causing Blast Off’s shot to be off. The trooper stumbled back at the impact but wasn’t dead, she reached to her audio receptor in an attempt to contact someone, but was cut off when Brawl, in his vehicle mode, a large tank the hovered a few feet off the ground, fired into her chest, blowing a whole clean through her. Simultaneously Vortex had cut through the troopers arm severing the Scrap Maker, he twirled around him, almost in a dance like way, before throwing his arm back, a heated sword emerging from his wrist above his hand, severing the Vehicon’s head. 

Blast Off looked at Brawl, who had returned to his robot mode, and said “Thanks”

Blast Off folds the barrel backwards compacting the rifle, then reaches back attaches it to his back. Vortex stowed his long sword, still dripping with Energon, on his back, and retracted his heated sword into his arm. Swindle grabbed the rocket trooper and started dragging her corps back into the prison, Brawl did the same with the other Vehicon, but encountered difficulty since he was in multiple pieces, he got the largest piece over, but left a trail of Energon across the ground. Onslaught grabbed the arm, and the head, which was partially melted on the bottom and tossed it into the doorway. 

“No alarms, guess we didn’t need stealth” Brawl commented, no jab intended in his voice.

“Could be a silent alarm,” cautioned Onslaught

“Not picking anything up” Swindle reported, looking through his visor which had lowered over his eyes, “looks like you were right big guy,” he playfully patted Brawl on the back.

“Cut the chatter. Brawl, you know the way to the launch pad, take point” Onslaught barked out orders and transformed into an armored truck with various guns on it. 

The other Combaticons followed suit, Brawl returned to his tank form, Swindle transformed into a lightly armored vehicle with four wheels, they normally didn’t touch the ground, but when speed was needed they made contact. Vortex leapt into the air, and in a whirl of parts became a wide vehicle with two double bladed propellers, the thrusters on the back provided speed boosts. Blast Off shifted position and turned into a long narrow aircraft. 

After a cycle of traveling they arrived at the heavily guarded launch tower. 

“Blast Off, Vortex, fly to the top and start taking out their defenses from there, Swindle, Brawl, and I will mount a frontal assault from the bottom” 

Blast Off and Vortex flew to the top and landed in the center of the circular tower, around them were escape pods, designed to be scanned and taken on as a vehicle mode. At the very top there were five guards, who were already taking aim at the pair of Combaticons. Blast Off pulled out a second rifle, this one wasn’t a sniper. A quick shot from Blast Off into one of the guards knees started the fight. Vortex flipped over Blast Off, stabbing his heated sword through the head of a Vehicon melee fighter. Blast Off turned and fired again, this time a kill shot on a rocket trooper, he had learned from his mistake. Vortex retracted his heated sword and pulled two regular ones from his back, and stabbed them into a Vehicon’s arm and scissored it apart, Vortex stooped and took the light rifle from the disarmed trooper, and fired it into the last standing trooper. Blast Off took a small mace off his hip and smashed the Vehicon whose knee he had shot. Without looking Vortex shot the Vehicon he had injured.

Vortex reached to activate his coms “Launch pad secure Onslaught, do you want us to rendezvous with you?”

“Negative,” The reply was accompanied by the sound of weapon fire through the communicator “Hold the launch pad until our arrival”

Meanwhile on a lower floor Onslaught was crouching behind a barricade, he was holding a large rifle, it shot heavy, armor piercing ammo that exploded. Swindle, who normally only carries a silenced pistol, was using a shotgun given to him by Brawl. Brawl’s minigun, which has mowed down several nameless Decepticons on their way in, wasn’t very helpful now.

Brawl growled “Onslaught, I’m using the EMP cannon, get clear!” Brawl stepped out of cover, his arm morphing into a large weapon. He briefly aimed it and released a shockwave, much of the enemy weapon fire stopped. Swindle leapt out of cover and fired the shotgun into the front line of the defenses. Onslaught draws his rust cannon and dissolves the Decepticon’s cover, allowing Brawl do get back to the front and use his minigun.

“Enough!” Barricade stepped out, across from the Combaticons, in his hand he held a machine gun pistol, “Stand down, and perhaps lord Megatron will be merciful”

Part of Onslaught’s wrist moved forward over his knuckles, Onslaught savagely punched Barricade in the chest caving in his spark chamber leaving him seizing on the ground, writhing in pain. The Vehicons who were behind Barricade raise their weapons and begin firing again, Swindle quickly draws his pistol and takes out two of the guards. Onslaught rams his fist into another’s head, and backhands a second. Brawl whips out his hammer and slams it down on a Vehicon’s leg, then pulls it up, activating a built in thruster ripping another clean in half. Swindle tosses the shotgun back to Brawl, it hit him in the back and transformed to be a part of him, the yellow Decepticon flipped out a knife and slit the throat the last Vehicon.

The rest of the trip up the tower was relatively uneventful, they encountered a few Vehicons which they dispatched easily, when they got to the top they found Vortex and Blast Off fighting off some reinforcements. Dismembered bodies laid around the pad. 

“About time!” Called out Blast Off as he smashed a head in, 

“Combaticons, prepare for launch!” Ordered Onslaught.

The team ran to different launch bays, each one was a long pillar, barely wide enough for anyone to fit in. Brawl and Blast Off nearly run into each other as they head towards the same pillar.

“Can’t you already fly?” Brawl demanded, pushing past Blast Off.

“Not in space you dip nut”

In each of the pods there’s a small holographic screen that uploads the schematics for the escape pod to the Cybertronians, it then asked for coordinates of travel.

“Swindle, do you have the course?” Onslaught asked

“Of course”

The pods launched and were quickly redirected towards Earth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Proper action starts in this chapter, next chapter will take place on Earth, from the perspective of my human characters, the Drew family. It always confused me why so many Transformers media start with the human characters, those are the least interesting parts, and are often annoying(especially in Armada).


	4. Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home

Sarah waved at her friend, Rob was also going on leave and lived about an hour away, he had offered to drive her home. Sarah was tall, about five foot eight, she had light brown hair that went down to a bit above her shoulders. She was white, like really white, or she had been before spending the better part of three years in the sun, and the last 11 months in a row, in India, fighting in the war. She raised her hand and knocked on the wood door, her house was small, and her family is fast, she knew she wouldn't be out here long.

Sure enough, the door opened and her husband was there rubbing his brown eyes, his black hair disheveled a toothbrush hanging out of his mouth. The door was facing the sun, so he couldn't make out much more than a silhouette.

“Hello?” He said groggily

“Surprise.” Sarah whispered 

The toothbrush dropped from his mouth, and he just stared up at her. Sarah stepped forward and embraced him, crushing his face against her shoulder. 

After stuttering for a few seconds Seth spoke “What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be off for another month!”

She laughs a little “I got my leave moved up, it one of my S.O’s messed up scheduling so here I am.”

He gets up on his toes, and gives her a quick peck on the lips. She smiles and wipes her lips, “Mmm, toothpaste”

“Oh, sorry”

“It’s okay. It’s been almost a year, I’ve missed you too”

“Mom?”

The sweet innocent voice was a lot different than last time they she heard her daughters voice, she was aware of the change because of phone calls, but in person it was even more different. Sierra ran to her mother and embraced her.

“Oh, you’re so big.” They both laughed a little.

A few hours later they were eating dinner, most of the excitement of being home had passed and they were now quietly talking, some stories had been heard before, but they didn’t really care, at some point the conversation turned to family.

“Hmm,” Seth started with some food in his mouth, holding up a finger while he swallowed his steak “That reminds me, your cousin is in town”

“Can you be less specific?” Sarah teased

“Um,” Seth hesitated “Ex-military, married to… to Ted…”

“The fact that you remember my cousin’s husband’s name but not my cousin's name amuses me”

Seth looked to Sierra for help, but she said nothing, just smiling, clearly having fun watching her dad struggle.

“Alright, fine. I give up, what’s your cousin’s name”

“Jeremy”

“Jeremey! Jeremy and Ted are in town.”

“Did they say why?”

“‘They were on a road trip when they realized they were in the area and wanted to visit’” the way Sierra said it, Sarah could tell it was a direct quote.

The next morning there was a heavy knock on the door. Sara answered the door and saw Ted standing there.

“Ted! Good to see you. Do you need help with Jeremy?”

“Nope” Jeremy’s voice cut in, he was also tall, about 6 feet tall, he had his blond hair in a buzz cut.

“Jeremy? Oh my god, you’re walking.” Sarah exclaimed and hugged her cousin

“It ain’t that big ova’ deal. I’ve been doing it for a few months now”

“You email me everyday, and you never once mention this. When did you get the prosthetic?”

“Half a year ago, only got good with it recently”

There was the pitter-patter of small feet and Sierra stood next to her mother.

“Dad says to remind you to be a good host and invite them in,” she whispered

Sarah blushed, embarrassed, “Of course, pleas-“

Sarah was cut off as she heard a boom.

Sarah grabbed her daughter and pulled her to the ground, “Get down”

She was breathing heavy, reaching towards her hip where she would have a gun if she was in the war. Upon realizing it wasn’t there she got up and ran indoors carrying Sierra with her, pushing her into a closet, while she ran back out. She suddenly felt two steady arms on her shoulder and heard a voice yell at her.

“Sarah! Sarah listen to me! You’re home, the war isn’t here” Jeremy yelled at her, before embraced her and started whispering into her ear.

Eventually Sarah collapsed on the ground, “What just happened?”

“Sarah, you can’t go back to the marines,” Jeremy said quietly.

“What? Of course I can”

“Sarah, that was definitely PTSD”

“It can’t be, I haven’t experienced anything to-“

“There’s not always a single reason”

“Mom?” Came Sierra's voice from inside the house,

“Not now, sweetie” Called Seth back

“There’s a hole in the backyard”

“I’ll talk to her,” Ted said to his family

In the house, Ted looked into the backyard to wear Sierra was pointing, and sure enough, she was telling the truth. Kind of, there wasn’t a hole in the backyard, there were five giant craters, that expanded beyond their backyard, into the farmland near them. 

“Oh my god” Ted said quietly, “Sierra, call 9-1-1, tell them that there’s been explosions in our backyard”

“Got it” Sierra scampered off to find the phone

Ted was too distracted by the giant craters to notice the five sets of footprints leading to windbreak trees, or the glowing red eyes staring at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Five new human characters, and mysterious craters in their backyard, gas pipe explosion? I think everyone reading knows what’s really going on. Next chapter we’re still with these fleshy characters, as the authorities arrive to figure out what exactly happened


	5. Investigation

Investigation

The fire department arrived first, followed by the local utilities company, neither of them could find what caused the explosion, but they did find some metal debris. A single dark blue news van came, even a story this weird only warranted a small response from the regional news, that’s how small the town was. Hell, Sarah didn’t even see anyone with the van. The official’s best guess was some sort of gas explosion, and that the blast had thrown dirt in a way to recover the pipes, but upon further investigation it was found that all the gas pipes were intact. Sierra suggested fireworks, but while this town was very patriotic, and the Fourth of July was in a few days, no firework was powerful enough to do this. The family discussed it and decided to stay in the town’s motel, with Sarah’s cousin. 

The metal taken from the explosion sight was given to a small team of government scientists, they had taken some samples to try and figure out where it came from.

“Hey, check this out,” Dr. Janets pulled out a pistol and shot the metal point blank several times. Not a scratch on the metal

His companion, Dr. Lopez, rolled her eyes.

“Well have you found anything?” Asked Dr. Janets, as he looked up from the largest piece of metal.

“A few things,” Dr. Lopez demonstrated by probing it with a metal rod. The rod had an electric current coursing through it. When the rod made contact with the metal, is seemed to flinch, tiny pieces of smaller interlocking pieces of metal shifted and the metal took on a different, more spread out, form.

“My god...” Janets muttered under his breath.

Lopez gestured to her microscope “There’s something much cooler!” Janets looked into the microscope to see a series of tiny, microscopic even, groves. “Isn’t is beautiful? It almost looks like a nervous system.”

Dr. Janets moved and locked the door, “Technically I shouldn’t be telling you this, but five years ago there was a mission report that matches up almost exactly with recent events. A projectile of unknown origin crashed, but it turned out to be an alien. An alien robot that could turn into vehicles, it’s metal was super strong, and was controllable like a limb”

Dr. Lopez knew from the look in her partner’s eyes that he was being serious.

“I need to call this in, there are people who deal with this kind of thing. Keep this under wraps, don’t let anyone else in”

She nods, swallowing her nerves.

Brawl rolled his shoulder, looking at the large piece of metal missing from his arm. “That was a rough landing”

“Swindle, how’s the geoscan going?” Onslaught asked, getting straight to business 

“Boringly, the entire surrounding area it flat, and wet, there’s a small lake in the settlement we landed in”

“Ha, landed” Vortex chuckled.

Swindle glanced at him “Although I am picking up some radio signals.”

Swindle press some buttons on his wrist and audio starts playing

“-matching the reports of Agent Jack Burns from five years ago, about the transforming robots.” The audio came through clear.

“I guess Starscream’s intel checked out,” Blast Off sounded only a little surprised

“The more pressing issue,” Onslaught started “is that the natives know we are here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I didn’t have as much to say about the scientists as I thought, so I added a bit of the Combaticons into the chapter.


	6. Transformations

Transformations

Five military vehicles came past, three on the road, two in the sky. An armored four wheeled vehicle lead the group, followed closely by a large eight wheeled vehicle that had a giant gun emplacement on the back. Last in line was a tank covered in weapons, above the trio flew a vehicle of unknown origin, behind that was one with four blades spinning above it .Swindle’s visor clicked into place and the various scopes slid out.

“I’ve accessed some of Earth’s data banks, they have a primitive data network that they call the ‘World Wide Web’” Swindle explained, “the one in the front is an Oshkosh 1 all terrain vehicle, primitive but effective on this planet. Next one is a SA-22 Greyhound, weapons designed for ant-aircraft use. The tank is a BMPT, nicknamed ‘The Terminator’, lots of weapons”

“Dibs”, Braw said.

“The two flying ones are a Mikoyan Gurevitch MiG 25, a high altitude fighter jet, and an Apache helicopter. Both for combat.”

Before Swindle had finished talking Brawl had already scanned the tank and his appearance shifted to reflect that. 

“Five vehicles, and there’s five of us, Combaticon’s take them out” Onslaught ordered. 

“Communications scrambler up,” Swindle reported, “we won’t be reported”

The giant cannon that Brawl had gained after scanning the BMPT shifted, it raised over his head and attached to his chest. Brawl’s feet locked down to the ground and he fired his weapon into the vehicle he scanned. The tank exploded and was flipped. Chaos ensued, humans jumped out of the vehicles reading weapons, the vehicle’s weapons were aimed at the clump of trees the Combaticons hid in. The helicopter began flying away.

“Oh no you don’t!” Vortex leapt out of the trees and scanned the helicopter, quickly entering into pursuit of the original. The helicopter turned so its nose facing Vortex and began flying backwards maintaining its distance, but firing towards the Combaticon. The ammo had little effect on Vortex, mostly bouncing off and throwing sparks into the air. Parts shifted, and booster rockets were exposed on Vortex, giving him the speed necessary to catch up to the helicopter, he faced his nose up and rocketed towards the clouds, before nose diving into the human vehicle Vortex’s rotors ripping it in half. 

Vortex transformed into his robot mode, significantly altered by taking on his new form, the cockpit of the Apache on his torso, the propeller blades on his back, almost like a cape. Vortex’s hands emerged from round missile launchers, and with those hands he grabbed the two halves of the bisected vehicle and flew into the sky. The propeller lifted off his back giving him the appearance of having a hunch back, and his booster engines came out of his claves. As he got higher the propeller no longer gave him any lift, and he threw the halves of the vehicle into the sky as hard as he could. The hydra rocket launchers rotated out of his arm and released a barrage of missiles blowing the vehicle to shrapnel.

Out of the corner of his optics Vortex saw a human falling, and a parachute opening. Carefully Vortex stabbed a hole into the fabric, just enough so that the human would think they might survive until the very end, where the impact is inevitable.

When Vortex returned to the battlefield he found his teammates already cleaning up the wreckage. 

Swindle had taken the form of the Oshkosh, which had dramatically altered his appearance, the vehicle’s grill had become his chest, the armor for the mounted gun on top of the vehicle had become his lower torso, where as the gun itself had become wrist mounted. 

Onslaught had become the anti aircraft vehicle, the main weapon mount become most of his body, the weapons going to her upper back, the front of the vehicle, also joined with his torso. The bulk of the vehicle, on the back split and formed his arms and legs.

As he said Brawl took the terminator tank has his body. The machines treds formed his legs, the weapons spread over his body, and his arms and torso came from the tanks body.

Blast Off was currently scanning the Mikoyan, his feet grew the engines on the back of jet, his arms came from the parts of the jet with the hollow parts on it, and his lower torso shifted to become the cone nose of the jet. The cockpit formed on his back along with the wings.

Onslaught drew his rust canon and shot all of the original vehicles, the rest quickly spread through the metal of the vehicles until only non metal parts of it remained.

“Well, that works faster than usual” Swindle commented, “I might have underpaid for it”

“While I’m sure you did, I don’t think this an example of the weapons quality,” Onslaught replied, “these earth metals are primitive, nothing compared to living metal-”

“Transformium,” Swindle interrupted.

“I will never call it that,” Onslaught continued, “it doesn’t compare to living metal, or Cybermatter.”

Scowling, Swindle picked up the communications scrambler, “So what next”

“Next,” Onslaught began, “next we find out where they were going, and assess this planet’s military capability”

“Isn’t that what we just did?” Brawl asked has he wiped Energon residue from his rifle’s barrel.

“That was a small squadron,” Blast Off offered his opinion, “I’m sure that’s not all this military has to offer”

“Time to find out, Combaticons, enter vehicular cover” Onslaught ordered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the Combaticons are finally robots in disguise. As for the decision to make Blast Off, a fighter jet rather than a space shuttle, this was because Blast Off always stuck out like a sore thumb with the military theme of the others. That being said the Mikoyan Gurevitch MiG 25 holds the world record for altitude flight, so I didn’t entirely ignore his roots. Also shout out to everyone leaving Kudos, it’s much appreciated.


	7. Infiltration

Infiltration

“The convoy’s approaching”

“I’ll radio the Brigadier General”

Two low ranking members of the United States Air Force sat in a small building along the side of a road, at the end of the road was an Air Force base. The convoy wasn’t part of the international special unit created when the Decepticons Dropkick and Shatter attacked humans, but it was meant to reinforce them. Special Agent Jack Burns was already on his way to investigate the possibility of more NBEs.

“Hey, Fred. Are those colors regulation?”

With the exception of the BMPT tank, which had a dark green paint job, all of the vehicles were colored strangely. The SA-22 was mostly dark blue with some dark green throughout. The Oshkosh L-ATV was a bright yellow with purple hood and rear doors. The Mikoyan Gurevich MiG-25 was bronze with purple highlights instead of the standard white. And the Apache Helicopter was the most colorful, mostly grey, with equal parts dark blue and purple.

“I don’t know, this is what happens when multiple countries pitch in to one force”

The Oshkosh in the lead pulled up the pair of airmen. The window slowly rolls down and the Colonel holds out his ID. Fred leans out his window and looks at the ID. Satisfied his stands up straight and salutes.

“Have a good day, sir”

“You too,” Swindle replied as he controlled the hologram.

The Combaticons drove into the military base, and it’s inhabitants were none the wiser. 

“Where is my backup?”

Agent Jack Burns had just stepped out of the plane and was straight to business, the poor airman who was unloading the plane just received the brunt of Burns’ bad mood assumed that this was par for the course for the agent. 

“They checked in at the gate but no one’s seen them since, sir!”, he then smiled and added quietly, “Which is unfortunate because they’re in trouble for what they did to their vehicles”

Agent Burns stopped in his tracks, “What did they do?”

The airman was surprised that his comment was replied to and stammered “Wel- Well they just gave them some unorthodox paintjobs”

“Show me!”

Swindle transformed, “The camera feed is looped, it’s clear”

The rest of the Combaticons followed suit. Blast Off stayed in a crouched position and drew his sniper rifle, flipping on a night vision mode to see in the darkness.

“I’ll keep watch”

Onslaught nodded and using hand signals ordered his team to explore the area. They moved quietly, analyzing the equipment the humans had, it didn’t take long.

“As we suspected, primitive,” Onslaught muttered, “even a small force could conquer this planet.”

“Don’t be so sure onslaught,” Swindle interjected, “they have some Cybertronian tech”

“What?” exclaimed Vortex, “How is that possible?”

“Unclear. Did it come from Shatter and DropKick?”

“Technically possible,” Swindle lowered his visor over his eyes. “By the Allspark..”

“What is it?” Onslaught crept to where Swindle was standing.

“I can’t be certain, but this looks like something I had only heard about in theory” Swindle carefully lifted the object. It was a sphere in a harness made of two rings. “A perpetual energy machine, a single drop of energon in this thing could power a city for deca-cycles”

“We’re leaving” Onslaught ordered, “we can’t let the humans keep these.”

As he finished talking the door flew open, and weapon fire erupted into the room. 

“Onslaught, they’re here!” Yelled Blast Off as he pulled the trigger, the shot connected, and the human exploded into a wet, red mist, splattering the other soldiers. 

Brawl fires rockets from his shoulders into the wall of the garage, exposing the outside. Onslaught draws his pistol and fires a spray of bullets into the humans. 

“Quickly before more arrive!”

The Swindle transformed, positioning the generator into his trunk and slammed on the gas, Vortex ran after him drawing his rifle as he did. Brawl also remained in robot mode, transforming his hand into a weapon with multiple energy generators, the generators projected energy into a sphere at the center of them, then a final beam emerged from the weapon’s center, focusing the energy ball and launching it into the ceiling. Blast Off transformed and flew out of the hole in the ceiling. As this happened Jack Burns entered the room, Onslaught went to fire on him but hesitated. Whereas the other humans and been cautious with their approach, and hid behind cover, this man exuded confidence, and entered the room with a confident stride, back straight, a weapon held almost casually in his hand. Their eyes met, and Onslaught felt oddly intimidated, he shook off the feeling and stood up to his full height. They stood like that for a few seconds, before Onslaught transformed and drove away, the sudden movement galvanized Burns into action, he raised his gun and began firing into Onslaught’s bumper. 

He lowered his weapon as Onslaught got out of his range. He turned to leave the room as more soldiers entered the room.

“Sir! What happened.”

“Don’t let them get away! Do whatever you have to do, I’m getting the C.R.D. gear unloaded.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the hiatus, I was working on the pre-writing part of a new project and got distracted from this. Don't worry I'll be sure to finish this story before I really start that one


	8. Escape

Escape

Blast Off and Vortex had taken to the sky, they were fighting off the air support the humans had launched. Blast Off hovered in his robot mode, with his sniper out, spinning in circles to keep up with the spinning jets. Vortex flew in circles around Blast Off, switching quickly between his robot mode, and vehicle mode, slashing open planes with his sword, or firing rockets from his arm. 

Swindle was driving, fast, the perpetual energy machine strapped in with a seatbelt, the turret on his roof firing at his pursuers, Onslaught was doing the same. Brawl ran alongside him, his riddle drawn, occasionally turning to fire it, and his shoulder mounted rocket launchers. 

“Hey Vortex, think I can shoot a human out of a cockpit without damaging the rest of the aircraft?”

Vortex chuckled “Do it.”

He did it. Blast Off trained his sniper on a single plane and stayed on it for a long time, then he pulled the trigger. The glass of the cockpit shattered, and the human’s head was gone. 

Vortex burst out laughing, “Nice one!”

That wasn’t the end of it, without a pilot the plane went out of control and started falling straight towards the ground Combaticons. 

“Oh scrap,” Blast Off muttered.

Thinking fast, Onslaught shifted into robot mode, turning to face the vehicle, his rust canon already drawn. He fired into the falling vehicle, reducing it to a red and brown powder, uncomfortable but not dangerous. He looked up and glared at Blast Off who averted his gaze, getting back to firing.

“Onslaught! The gate!” Brawl yelled.

Onslaught turned back the way they were going, to see a concrete barrier rising from the ground. His eyes flickered around the area, going through countless plans. If they blasted the gate the humans could follow which meant they had to go around it somehow. Going through the fence would cause the same problem. Vortex and Blast Off could fly over it, he could make the jump, and Swindle could climb it, but Brawl wouldn’t be able to. That left going under.

“Brawl, use your Merge Rifle on the ground!” 

Brawl transformed, stumbling slightly as his treads kept turning. His arm changed into the same weapon he used on the hangar ceiling, the beams of energy combined to launch a sphere of energy, vaporizing the ground into a tunnel. Swindle converts, and slides through the tunnel.

“C’mon!”

Brawl grumbles, and his body starts to shift. His torso narrows and he crawls through. Onslaught leapt over the tunnel, landing immediately after the hole, causing it to collapse, but he had already left the ground again, and landed on the other side of the wall. He turns his arm into an armor piercing rifle, and gets ready to fire, but he didn’t need to. Blast Off and Vortex land next to him. 

“They ran out of flyers,” Vortex explained. 

Brawl and Swindle made it out of the tunnel, Brawl’s chassis returning to its normal size, and without a word, they leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time the Combaticons will be returning to a certain small town.


	9. Conquest

Conquest

The motel was on the edge of town, and under some serious renovation. The town was small but it was along a major highway to Canada so tourists stopped there frequently, allowing them to make a fair amount of money. The Drew family had seen a lot of renovation equipment, there was a red drill in the front area for, well, Sarah didn’t really know, but she did know that the purple jack hammer out front was for breaking up the concrete outside. Now they were in a motel room, Sierra jumped back and forth between the twin and queen bed, while the adult talked. 

“I can’t just leave the marines”

“You can! I did,” Ted said, exasperated, “when I left the army-”

“You lost your leg, Ted, I just panicked because there was an explosion in my backyard.”

“Honey,” Seth had, for the most part, been quiet, he didn’t know what it was like to be in the military, he just wanted what was right for his wife. Whether that meant letting her go back to the marines like she wanted, or if he had to side with Ted. “That seemed bad, your reaction I mean, maybe we should at least get a professional opinion?”

“And what if they say I’m not okay? This is our livelihood.”

“I’d get a job! Sierra is getting old enough, one of us doesn’t have to be home all day.”

Sierra opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Jeremy, being an elementary school teacher he was used to mediating arguments. “How about,” he paused checking to make sure he had the attention of the couple, “you see how this weekend goes? Fourth of July, there will be a lot of fireworks going off, if you have another reaction we know you should try and get out of the army.”

The word was barely out of his mouth when Sarah corrected him, a reaction trained by years of doing it “Marines.”

Jeremy held up a hand in apology “Marines, sorry. But if you’re okay, we’ll know that it was just a fluke, and you can go back without a ruffled feather.”

Sarah looked back to her husband and sighed, “I can agree to that.”

Ted nodded “Me too.”

“Good, now can we go eat, we never had dinner at your house and it’s almost sup-”

The building shook as a crash rang through the air.

Sarah laughed, “See? I’m fine, it’s not a bi-”

Another crash, this time closer. Sierra screamed, and pointed towards the window, where a large metal object stood. 

“What in God’s name?” Ted walked over to the window, and looked up. He saw a giant, humanoid metal figure, standing next to their window. The setting sun sent orange light glistening off its bronze body, and then it spoke.

“Citizens of Earth. We represent the Decepticons, and we are here to establish a base. Your cooperation is not required.”

The other chuckled, “In fact it’s discouraged.” 

Sarah recognized that its arm ended in a Hydra Rocket launcher, she had seen enough of them to know what they could do. It rapidly fired several in quick succession, each one going into a different building, many of them homes, every building reduced to rubble. A man riding a tacky pink lawn mower stared at them, hardly able to move from fear. The one that had fired the rockets drew a sword and cut the head of the man, perfectly, nothing else was damaged. Because of the gruesome image, Sierra screamed, and the robots stopped, and turned towards the motel. The bronze one grabbed the roof and ripped it off. 

“Why hello there.”

“Blast Off, take one with us, we could use leverage.”

“I’m not touching one, they gross me out. You grab one!”

“If I grab one I can’t use more than one weapon, you grab one!”

The Drew family was running away at this point, Ted lagging behind due to his missing leg.

“Hey!” Without thinking the bronze one, the one called Blast Off, grabbed Ted and lifted him into the air by his prosthetic. “Oh, oh Primus this is so gross.” 

Thinking fast Ted pulled his upper half up, and unfastened the straps on his leg, causing him to fall to the ground. Both robots screamed and leapt backwards.

“Oh Primus, it’s leg.” He seems to realize he was still holding the leg and dropped it with one more yelp. “Vortex, I think it’s your turn to pick him up.”

“Ugh, fine.” Vortex bent over and grabbed the man “I mean… it’s not that bad.”

“Cut the chatter!” The order came as Onslaught and the rest of the Combaticons arrived. The leader transformed. “Was the plan a success?” 

“Yes. They are cowering in fear and we have the hostage you asked,” he raised the hostage Ted into the air

Sarah threw open the door to the motel, holding an M-60. “Put him down you bastard!”

She aimed the gun at Vortex.

“Hey, shoot me and he drops!” He lifted Ted higher, his arm fully extended.

Brawl transformed, the concrete cracking as his fist hit the ground pushing himself up. “Just squish him! There’s a bunch of fleshies we can take, this one’s more trouble than it is worth!”

“Back off you Mooncalf!”

Brawl took a step forward, laughing “Moonca-”

She pulled the trigger, and fired all two hundred and fifty rounds into Brawl’s chest. 

And it didn’t do a goddamn thing. 

All those sparks flew, all those metallic clangs and there was not as much as a scratch, and she was left standing there panting, covered in sweat, her eyes wide.

“Hey fleshy,” Brawl started walking towards her again, “next time you should make sure that your weapon works, before you deplete its ammo.”

“Combaticons, fall back,” Onslaught barked.

“What? Why? Look at Brawl, their weapons don’t work.”

“Don’t question my orders, Swindle! Now!”

With confused glances the Combaticons obeyed. Retreating to the north of town, using Swindle’s Mirage Cloak they hid the direction they went. Onslaught pulled them over behind a row of grain silos, near train tracks and long buildings. Onslaught converted, slowly keeping quiet and looking out past the silos, bent over the whole time.

“Clear.”

Immediately Brawl transformed, loudly, his body slamming into the ground in several places before compacting into his robot mode. He took a few long paces and was in Onslaught’s face.

“What the Pit, Onslaught!” Brawl’s tone was accusatory, “Did you not see what happened! Their weapons can’t hurt us!

“Their weapons can’t hurt you!” Onslaught snapped, jabbing Brawl with his fingers, “Your chassis has always been stronger than ours!” He drew himself up to his full height. “We cannot be divided, now more than ever. We are alone here, on this planet it is just us, an unknown amount of Autobots, and the organics.”

He was being harsh, and he knew it, he had to get his point across, but he also had to stay on good terms with his team, so he eased off.

“Brawl, you’re a brilliant strategist, in battle, but you fail to see the bigger picture outside of it, I need you questioning my decisions, but not my orders. When I say fall back we need to fall back, that order is too important and time sensitive to waste time arguing about.” His voice softened even more, striking an almost friendly tone, “Clear?”

Brawl sighed, the anger fading from his eyes, his tone softening as well, “Clear.”

“Good,” Onslaught stepped back. “Blast Off, Vortex, patrol the perimeter, destroy the roads and make sure no one leaves. Swindle, make sure the Communication Scrambler is still up, and stays that way. Brawl, patrol the streets, let people go about their normal lives, but quell any violence.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some rapid succession updates, I feel that kind of sums up my writing. When I want to write I want to write, but when I don't...
> 
> Anyway, regarding the story, I think this might be the longest chapter, there were just a lot of things I needed to happen here, and it all kind of fit under the title "Conquest"
> 
> I'm trying to write in a way not to show bias towards any specific Combaticon, I feel like Onslaught is getting more "screen time" because he's the leader, how good of a job am I doing? Guess who my favorite Combaticon is.


	10. Resistance

Resistance

Almost everyone was still there, but the town seemed deserted. The message was clear, try to leave and you will be killed, and while those that had gone outside weren’t killed, no one wanted to risk it more than was necessary. But there was talk of resistance, in the town’s general store a dozen people sat in the circle talking. 

“Someone will notice soon, right?” One man asked, “When someone comes to the town they’ll see what’s happening.”

“That assumes that the aliens aren’t killing anyone who tries to enter, like they do when we try to leave,” Sarah put her head in her hands, “We have to fight back.”

“Aliens?” The oldest man replied, incredulously, “Is that we’ve decided they are? I think they're Russian battle machines.”

“Oh, come on the Cold War ended four years ago,” a woman spoke up, “If anything they’re from India, considering that’s who we’re at war with now.”

“If they’re Indian war machines why aren’t any of them based on Indian vehicles?” Sarah sighed, “Three of them are Russian vehicles, two are American.”

“Sarah,” Jeremy has been mostly quiet, he wanted to fight back, but the alien talk didn’t sit right with him, “How does that make them aliens?”

“You know what, you’re right!” She snapped, “I don’t know if they’re aliens, or Russian, or-or Indian, or whatever! But it doesn’t matter, we have to fight back, we can’t wait for someone to notice that we’re in trouble.”

“What do we fight back with? Your gun didn’t do anything, and you used all your ammo anyway.”

“Those,” she pointed towards the firework section, “We use those”

Vortex swooped down from the sky, metal split and parts whirled, and he landed in his robot mode.

“Onslaught! They’re doing something!’

“What, exactly, are they doing?”

“They’ve set up a barricade, and are refusing to disperse,” he paused, then asked hopefully, “should we squash them?

“No,” Onslaught reached to his audio receptor “Combaticons, converge on my location,” he lowered his hand, “let’s see what they’re up to.

All five Combaticons walked down Main Street, Onslaught in the center, with Vortex and Brawl to his left, and Blast Off and Swindle flanking his right. On the other end of the street was a wall of furniture and farm equipment blocking the way. The town folks who were willing to fight were crouched behind the barrier clutching firework rockets, only Sarah stood up waving her arms.

“Hey!” She shouted, “Get out of our town!”

Brawl laughed, “We’ve heard that from beings much more threatening than you!”

Sarah looked down at her neighbors and shrugged, “I tried.”

Then a dozen people rose in near unison holding fireworks, and shortly later three rockets went off. The Combaticons dove to the side to avoid the attack. 

“Where the scrap did those come from?” Swindle yelled as he drew his pistol

The rockets explode sending flares to the sides, then those flares explode again. Four more came, these ones aimed at the Combaticon’s new position. They were immediately followed by five more. 

“Blast Off! Get into the air, if they fire on you keep their attention, if they don’t take out the barricade!”

Blast Off nodded and quickly transformed shooting off into the sky. “Onslaught,” his voice came through over the coms “I got a bad angle on my take off, I’m going to have come back around.”

“Scrap,” Onslaught thought for a second. Vortex can fly like Blast Off but they’d be expecting to see another airborne attack, Swindle was fastest on the ground but a hit from a rocket could do significant damage to him, Brawl could take a hit but he’s slow. That left it to him. 

“Stay here!” He rolled back onto the street and transformed in one fluid movement. His anti-aircraft guns rose and fired a missile into the barricade, he blew a large hole in it, but didn’t know how many humans he killed.

Sarah did, with one shot half of the resistance died. She picked up the largest firework and positioned it on the barrier. Frantically she lit the fuse and aimed at Onslaught, who had resumed his robot mode. The rocket went off and hit Onslaught square in the chest, and just like that the illusion fell. It exploded and the light was brilliant, but that was it. The force of the explosion was weak and just caused Onslaught to stagger a little, he looked around confused and actually laughed at his own stupidity. None of the rocket explosions had damaged the ground. 

“Very clever humans, but I hope you have more in store than that,” his wrist beeped, he looked at it, and Sarah got the sense that he was smiling, despite him not having a visible mouth, “Because I know I certainly did.” 

Sarah’s eyes widen and the other towns folks rose and looked at the sky in horror as a large metal object lowered towards them, it hit the ground and from it stepped a scrawny Cybertronian, his red, blue, and white chasey shines. 

“So this is Earth?” Starscream questioned, looking somewhat disgusted, “I had hoped for something more… well I guess just more impressive.”

“The indigonus life forms are smaller than I expected, I hope they still present a challenge,” a small black Cybertronian stepped out of the ship, leading two others with her. An orange jet Cybertronian with black stripes, and a red ground based Cybertronian. The red one spoke next

“Now, now, Airachnid, keep your priorities straight.”

Starscream chuckled, “Don’t chastise her we do need some human extermination, unless you want to do it.”

“Ew, no, I don’t want their guts in my grill.”

“Then shut up, Knock Out,” there was genuine venom in Airachnid’s voice. 

Starscream spread his arms and approached Onslaught, seemingly noticing him for the first time, “Well done my friend. This town seems like the perfect place to build Dark Mount. Hooligan, rally the troops and finish what the Combaticons started”

The orange Decepticon nodded and raised his hand, spinning in a circle and pointing forward. Dozens of red eyes ignited in the darkness of the ship, and the legion of Vehicons marched out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starscream's here! Things are wrapping up, not quiet sure how many chapters are left but definitely not many.


	11. Reinforcements

Reinforcements

“Hooligan, rally the troops and finish what the Combaticon’s started.”

Dozens of purple and silver Cybertronians marched out of the ship.

“Fire!” 

There was a boom, and a shed exploded, followed by a warbling sound, the air seemed to ripple and five Vehicons got blown over. Jack Burns with a group of fifteen other humans in military gear stood in the ruins of the shed. 

“Starscream you fool!” Onslaught rounded on Starscream, very taller than him, “You lead them straight to us,”

“You’re actually afraid of these fleshies?” Starscream laughed, “They are nothing!”

“Do they look like nothing!” Onslaught gestures to the dead Vehicons, “You just lost ten percent of your troops! With one shot, go hide like you always do! I’m taking charge,” he pushed past Starscream, their shoulders scrape, throwing sparks. 

“You dare! Insult me! Lord Sta-” Onslaught punched him, and Starscream hit the ground at the same time as another blast from the human’s weapon went off, taking out more vehicons. 

Onslaught pulled out a grenade and casually threw it over his shoulder, it landed near the human weapon destroying it. 

Jack Burns got thrown by the blast, he shook his head to reorient himself, he saw about seven of his troops taking similar actions. 

He gripped the walkie talkie on his chest, “Ts’ai,” he gasped, “are you in position?”

“Yes, I have a line of sight on the orange one, ready to move when necessary” her Chinese accented voice came through the radio. 

“Do it.”

She crouched on the corner of a roof, not the most stable position, but she didn’t need anything more. She took the shot, and immediately rolled backwards using the recoil to help push her on her way, not bothering to see if it hit, it didn’t matter, her position would be compromised regardless. She got to the hole she had made in the roof and repelled down, at the bottom she pulled the release lever and the anchor point retracted, letting the pulley fall to the ground. She wound up the rope and attached it to her belt, then waited. On the way down she had heard a thud, so she assumed she damaged, maybe even destroyed, the orange Cybertronian. Outside the building she saw a Vehicon standing over a manhole. That would be her escape route. On her belt she had bombs that were designed to take out Cybertronians, she didn’t carry many of them but she had three. 

She smashed the window with the butt of her rifle, breaking the glass and leaping through. The Vehicon turned to her and began firing, but she was too small and fast. She turned the key in the bomb, and as she ran past she slapped the bomb onto the thinnest part of their leg, the magnets making sure it stuck. She squatted and slid her fingers into the manhole cover and lifted with all her strength, straining but she got it up, and threw it to the side. 

The Vehicon raised their gun to fire, but before they could the bomb went off, blowing a chunk off the center of their leg. Not waiting to see what happened next she leapt down. 

Onslaught had finished his plan when he heard an explosion. He and Swindle went to investigate and saw the Vehicon leaking out with a blasted open leg.

“Unde-de-de-der… ground” The Vehicon choked out before their glowing eyes dimmed. 

Onslaught pulled out another grenade and dropped it into the sewer. When it exploded the fire funneled out, and part of the ground collapsed. 

“There will likely be other entrances, take a squad and block the others.”

Onslaught suddenly felt pain in his leg, he looked out and saw Jack Burns marching towards him firing a machine gun. It started clicking and stopped firing so he threw it to the ground and pulled out a pistol, firing it while continuing walking towards Onslaught. When he got within arms reach of Onslaught he pulled out a bomb, turned the key, and got stepped on by Onslaught. He lay on the ground, bloody, and broken, gasping for breath.

“A valiant effort, human,” Onslaught sounded somewhat remorseful, “though I was disappointed to find, your strategy became somewhat sloppy in the end. I had hoped this would be a challenge,” he turned and walked away as the bomb exploded, killing Jack Burns.

Seth carried Sierra, running through the streets, desperately trying to get his daughter away from the fighting. Then, seemingly from nowhere, he saw the blue news van that had been at their house after the explosion.

“Hey! Hey!” He waved his free hand in the air, “Wait! Stop!” 

It stopped and he just now noticed the red tinted windows. 

“Please, take my daughter with you. Make sure she’s safe I’ll be back soon.”

“Dad, wait!” Sierra cried, tears rolled down her cheeks, “Please don’t do this.”

“I have to go back, please stay here,” he banged on the van again, “Please open up!”

“Please open up!”

His voice was echoed back. 

Then parts of the van started to shift, the shell split, the wheels were pulled in, feet formed and the van stood up, compacting itself into a humanoid form. Blue, like the van, but with a red glass plane on its chest. On one shoulder there was a cylinder, and their head lacked a mouth, and even separate eyes, just a metal plate and a red visor. 

Starscream groaned and stood up, he was confused for a moment, then he was angry. 

“Onslaught!” He yelled, “How dare you strike the lord of the Deceptic…” he stopped, mouth agape. “Ah, Soundwave, when… how are you here?” 

“When Lord Megatron left Cybertron I expanded my surveillance network, sending hunters throughout the universe,” his voice was monotone, and sounded synthesised by a machine, “Shatter and Dropkick alerted me to the presence of B-127s presence on Earth. When they failed to meet their check in I followed, and discovered the presence of nine Autobots on Earth.” 

“Lord,” he said the first word mockingly, “Megatron abandoned us when the war got bad, we need a new leader. 

“False.”

Starscream growled and raised his arm mounted blasters and fired his null rays. Soundwave made no attempt to avoid the attack and fell to the ground in temporary stasis lock.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Told you things would be happening. The C.R.D. that was mentioned before shows up, it stands for Cybertronian Response Department, and their leader was just killed. But hey, they got eleven Vehicons down, plus Hooligan, so that's a start for them. And Soundwave's here, but which side will he fall on? He doesn't seem fond of Starscream but he's still a Decepticon.


	12. The End

The End

Starscream had yelled at Onslaught but that was it. Now he was interrogating Soundwave, and growing increasingly concerned based on how cooperative he was being. In fact the only question he hadn’t answered was where Megatron was.

“Well, you have been very helpful, but if you won’t answer my final question, I’m afraid I no longer have any use for you,” Starscream raised his blaster and aimed it point blank at Soundwave’s head, at this range it would kill him. “No? Ver-”

The garage door flew open, a Vehicon covered in scratches ran in, while the door was open screams could be heard from outside, “They came from everywhere!”

“Who did?”

“Minicons, they’re tearing through our troops, they caught us by surprise.”

Starscream whirled back to face Soundwave, “Call them off! Now!”

He said nothing.

Starscream returned his blaster to Soundwave’s head, “Now!”

A high pitched siren like sound rang through the air, Starscream covered his ears and grimaced. Soundwave stood to his feat, and the speakers detached from his back and turned into a teal colored bird, continuing to release the sound. The cylinder on Soundwave’s shoulder began to glow, and a thin laser shot out, piercing through Starscreams head. 

“Soundwave superior, Starscream inferior.”

He stepped outside, and saw the carnage, twin humanoid Cybertronians destroyed a vehicon together, one red, one purple. A pink vehicle with blades on the bottom ran over a Vehicons head before transforming into an ape like form. Then Soundwave saw something he didn’t expect, the Combaticons were killing the Vehicons as well. 

Onslaught approached Soundwave, “We serve the strongest, that is not Starscream.”

The remaining twenty Vehcons were held up in Starscream’s ship, with Airachnid and Knock Out. 

“We’ll handle them, Combaticons! Combine into Bruticus!”

“Finally!” Brawl transformed into his tank mode, but further part shifting saw him rise up on the vehicle’s nose, it slimmed down and became longer.

Swindle flashed a quick grin and did the same thing.

Onslaught springed and vaulted into the air, his legs bulking up and attacking to his companions. 

Blast Off took off into the air and rammed into Onslaught’s outstretched hand. 

Vortex slowly lifted into the air and attached himself to Onslaught’s other arm.

“Bruticus, online!” 

“Oh scrap!” Knock Out ran out of the ship, his hands in the air, “I surrender!”

Bruticus bent down and backhanded Knock Out to the side, and began to advance on the ship, almost entirely ignoring the incoming weapon fire. They raised their right arm into the air, it was Blast Off, and fired off his entire arsenal of missiles into the ship. They stepped forward and grabbed the ship, and lifted. First just pulling it up onto it’s front landing gear, then entirely over their head, with a mighty roar Bruticus slammed the ship into the ground, it exploded, and the town belonged to the true Decepticons.

Later, the Combaticons wanted to discuss the future of their existence on this world, but Soundwave was staring at the sky in silence, until he spoke, “Brace yourselves.”

A beam of blue energy struck the ground, and the surrounding area turned to metal, it spread throughout the entire town turning it to metal.

Sarah, Seth, and Sierra had just made it past the town limits when they saw what was happening. They knew there was no escape. They embraced enjoying eachothers company one last time before they were turned to metal, their scared expressions frozen in statues.

In the sewers below Fan Ts’ai jogged through the knee deep water. She saw the metal spreading, and dove under the water. Fortunately it didn’t reach her, unfortunately it did reach the water, transforming the top of it to metal. She banged on the layer of metal, but quickly realized there was a better way. She pulled out one of her explosives, armed it, and swam away. She was running out of air, her lungs burned. The bomb went off and she swam back and emerged as fast as she could, gasping for breath. 

“What the scrap was that?” Vortex looked around, “It almost looks like Cybertron.”

“Correct,” Soundwave still looked to the sky, “a prototype device with the ability to turn anything into Cyber Matter.”

“But,” Swindle questioned, “the only example of such a device was attached to Megatron’s personal ship.”

“Correct.”

As if on cue a purple Cybertronian vessel breach through the clouds, it landed in Dark Mount and lowered an elevator. From it, stepped the giant, silver form of Megatron.

“Decepticons, your one true ruler has returned!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's it, that's the end. How many of you noticed the references to the Minicons in the previous chapters?  
I'll admit near the end I kind of lost interest in this project so I'm sorry if there was a dip in quality. I still felt the need to finish the story for the handful of you who read it. 
> 
> And yes this was always the intended ending. The Combaticons were always supposed to take over the town, and they were always going to turn on Starscream. There is a single "loose end" and that's the sniper's survival. This isn't meant to tease a sequel, this is just a way to leave readers with hope that the Decepticons might lose.
> 
> My next work as finished it's rewriting stage and is much more extensively planned than this. It;s not a Transformers work so it's likely most of these readers won't read it but I'm really excited about it.


End file.
